


Drowning Lessons

by everydaytomholland



Series: Pangs [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Drowning, Medical Inaccuracies, Other, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 01:21:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15938828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everydaytomholland/pseuds/everydaytomholland
Summary: Peter was terrified of heights. Correction- he was scared of falling; especially if it was into large bodies of water.





	Drowning Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> This work is the first in a series of angsty Peter Parker oneshots. I've got the next five already written and a further seven plotted out. Can't promise when I'll post the next one, I want to space them out a bit. In the meantime, please feel free to send me any prompts you have to my instagram under the same name. I can't guarantee I'll write your prompt because there are certain things I won't write, but please send them to me anyway and I'll do my best. 
> 
> Enjoy! xx

Peter Parker hated heights. Hated them. He always had, even before he was Spider-Man. After he’d been bitten he’d slowly been working on that fear though, and he’d genuinely thought he was cured. Turned out he’d only gotten over that fear when he was in control, but now? He was dangling from his feet, that winged guy had a painful grip on his ankles. All of a sudden the pressure on his ankles was gone and he realised he had been dropped. He quickly decided that his fear of falling was way worse than his fear of heights. Within seconds, Karen had deployed a hidden parachute in his suit but it was useless, he was facing the wrong way and immediately got tangled up in the fabric. He was hurtling towards the ground for what felt like forever. He could hear himself screaming but he almost couldn’t feel himself doing it. He felt a brief moment of relief when he felt himself crash into the water instead of the hard concrete he was expecting. This was short lived, however, when he immediately got a mouthful of water. His panic increased tenfold as he thrashed about, trying both to find his way out of the parachute he was tangled in, and trying to breathe. Before long, he felt himself getting weak and lightheaded from the lack of oxygen; he thought of his loved ones. Mom. I’m sorry. Dad. I’m sorry. May. I’m sorry. Ben. I’m sorry. Ned. I’m sorry. Liz. I’m sorry. Mr Stark. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. They ran through his head until he finally lost consciousness; I’m sorry, I’msorryImsorryimsorryimsorryimsor-… 

Tony had sent a suit to help Peter the moment he got the alert that he was in trouble – the alert came the moment the parachute was deployed. He was halfway across the world in India so he couldn’t go himself, but it was fine. The suit alerted him that it was going underwater to retrieve Peter which sparked a small amount of concern, he was sure the kid would be fine but even still.  
“FRIDAY, patch me through to the suit.” He got into his car, ready to head back to his hotel. He needed to head back to the US anyway, there was stuff he had to arrange at the compound while Happy was finishing packing up the tower.  
“Mr Stark, Mr Parker appears to be unconscious.” FRIDAY alerted him. Fuck.  
“Fri, give me his stats.”  
“Pulse is low,” shit, “body temp is showing beginning stages of hypothermia,” crap, “and he doesn’t appear to be breathing.”  
“FUCK! Fri, the suit can’t give CPR, redirect to the nearest hospital emergency room. Tell Happy to meet him there with about a dozen NDAs.” Tony pulled over to the side of the road, calling his suit to him would be faster than driving to it and he really needed to get home asap; he really needed to keep his panic at bay too.

Quiet nights in the ER were never a good sign. There was always a nervous energy surrounding the staff as they waited for something to disrupt the relative calm. Nothing could’ve prepared them, however, to see Iron Man carrying in an unconscious and soaking wet Spider Man.  
“I need help!” Tony Stark’s voice spoke, “He’s not breathing, he-he drowned and I’m not in the suit, I can’t give him CPR!” The suit’s faceplate lifted to show that no one was inside. The staff just stood there for several moments, staring, “NOW!”  
They quickly hurried into action, taking Peter from the suit’s arms and rushing him into a treatment room to the side. Within minutes, Peter was hooked up to several machines taking note of various vitals, he was covered from the stomach down in warming blankets to attempt to increase his core body temperature; there was also a tube down his throat trying to get him to breathe while one of the doctors pumped on his chest. They had wanted to contact Peter’s family but Tony assured them someone was on the way before disconnecting from the suit which was now standing sentry in the corner of the room.

They’d only just gotten the boy stabilised when Happy Hogan rushed into the room. He froze when he saw the boy. He was pale, too pale, covered in a small mountain of blankets and, among all of the other wires monitoring his body, a ventilator was down the boy’s throat. He cleared his throat to get the attention of the nurse who was writing in the boy’s chart.  
“Oh, are you his guardian?”  
“His guardian’s on his way back into town, I’m here on his behalf. How is he?”  
“Stable. We’re still trying to get his body temp up to normal range but it’s improving. His oxygen is low too, that’s why he’s intubated, and we’re also concerned about a risk of secondary drowning so we’d like to keep him here under observation for at least another 24 hours to be safe.” Happy nodded at her but neither of them said anything else as she left the room. Happy had messaged Tony with an update and now had to sit with the kid until he showed up.

By the time Tony arrived at the hospital 4 hours later, Happy was dozing on a chair next to Peter whose status was mostly unchanged; there were less blankets, his body temperature had recovered. A nurse came in moments later, if she was startled to see Tony Stark in the room, her face didn’t show it. She told him that they were most likely going to extubate Peter during morning rounds at 7am and expect him to wake not long after. He knew then there was no way he could get away with not calling May, it was almost morning and there was no way she would wake up and not notice Peter missing from his bed, let alone not being home for the entire day. And if he didn’t think of an excuse quickly she’d be finding out about Spider-Man too.

“Peter?!” Tony knew when she answered the phone on the first ring at almost 5am that May already knew Peter wasn’t at home, her worried voice confirmed it.  
“May, it’s Tony Stark.”  
“Tony, have you seen Peter? He was at a party last night and I was waiting up for him and I must’ve fallen asleep but he’s not home and I called Ned but he said Peter left the party early and he hasn’t heard from him.”  
“Peter’s with me. May-“  
“Where is he? Can I talk to him?”  
“May, Peter can’t talk right no-“  
“Why the hell not Stark, he’s my kid and he broke curfew, I think I’ve got the right to-“  
“He’s in hospital!” The silence on the other end of the line confirmed that that had come out far harsher than he had intended.  
“Is- is he okay?” she asked, much quieter than before.  
“He’s fine. He’s unconscious right now but he’s going to be just fine.”  
“Which hospital?”  
“I’ll send a car,” Happy nodded at him on his way out, “I’ll explain everything else when you get here.” She hung up.

“Well kid, you’ve got about half an hour to wake up or I’m telling her everything.”

May Parker ignored Tony when she walked in, choosing instead to sit by her nephew’s side, holding his limp hand and whispering into his ear. Tony didn’t know how much time had passed before she finally spoke. “What the hell happened to him?”  
“He drowned.” Her gasp was loud and shaky with the tears threatening to spill from her eyes.  
“How did he drown at a house party and his best friend didn’t even know about it?”  
“It wasn’t at the party. It’s a long story.”  
“I’ve got nothing but time.”

Her face was stoic and expressionless. He told the story right from when he first saw the videos of Spider-Man on YouTube (come to think of it, Peter had never told him the full story of how he got his abilities in the first place), to Germany, to the events of the night leading up until now.

“He- I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out. I knew he’d been sneaking out of the apartment every other night but I never anticipated this. Hang on- you took him to Germany to fight in a war against other superheroes?! He’s FIFTEEN years old!” Just then, a medical team came in ready to finally extubate Peter, “don’t think you’re off the hook, Stark.” 

Peter could hear beeping.  
It was loud.  
Too loud.  
Hurt.  
His throat hurt.  
There was a strong antiseptic smell.  
He was in a hospital.  
Why was he in hospital?  
He moved his finger and toes experimentally.  
It was a struggle but nothing seemed broken.  
“Peter?”  
His name.  
Was that May?  
Why was he in hospital?  
Then it all came rushing back to him.  
Weapons. Chasing. Winged guy. Flying. Falling. Water. Can’t breathe. Can’t breathe. Can’tbreathecantbreathecantbreathecantbreathecantbreathecantbreathecantbreathe. 

He was awake but not really. He was vaguely aware of a painfully bright light in the room. He knew he was sitting upright. He even knew logically that he was out of the water but he couldn’t stop himself from panicking. Was this a panic attack? He couldn’t slow his breathing down and couldn’t think coherently. He felt himself being pressed against something solid. Someone solid? He noticed his breathing was slowing down to match theirs. As he calmed down he could hear someone whispering in his ear, counting out their breaths. He could tell by the warm and musky scent of the person that it wasn’t May.

“Mr Stark?”  
“Hey, you with me now kid?”  
“I-“ he cut himself off with a groan as he was blinded by the lights.  
“Hap, turn the lights off. Better?”  
“Yeah.” He said as he lay back onto the pillows. Since when was being awake so exhausting? He glanced over at May who was sitting on the opposite side of the bed to Tony and, he only just noticed, had been holding his hand this entire time. She looked really worried, and tired.  
“I’m guessing from that panic attack that you remember what happened?” He looked back at Tony, who was the one who had spoken, Peter’s eyes went wide, thinking that May didn’t know the whole story. “Sorry kid, you were out for almost 12 hours, I had to tell her everything.”  
“You’re so busted, Spider-Man.” May said in an attempt to be lighthearted.  
“May, I’m so sorry. I-“  
“Don’t worry about it now, kid,” she told him, “we can have that conversation when you’re out of hospital.” She looked uncomfortable but she was smiling, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad?  
“You- you aren’t going to make me stop, are you?”  
“No,” that was a surprise to both Peter and Tony, “as much as I may want to, I don’t think I could stop you if I tried. That being said, there’s going to have to be some rules moving forward.”  
“Okay.” May cleared her throat, clearly expecting a response from Tony as well.  
“Oh, well of course,” he replied, “don’t worry kid, I’m thinking of all sorts of upgrades to the suit now I know what a klutz you are. First thing’s first; emergency snorkel in the mask?”

Peter smiled up at his mentor and nodded before falling back asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews are amazing, please share what you think - I'll accept any and all feedback!
> 
> Follow/send prompts to my instagram @everydaytomholland :)


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